ING Real Estate Development (ING RED), the real estate branch of the ING group, was planning to start a large-scale real estate project in the centre of Bucharest, Investor.bg said.

The new project was said to be similar to the Zlote Tarasy project in Warsaw and to include office spaces and a mall, Romanian daily Ziarul Financiar said.

"We found an appropriate plot in Bucharest on which we can build. The situation is quite complicated, however, as it involves several owners, but we intend to pursue this project," ING RED managing director in Romania, Siep Hoeksma, was quoted as saying.

The company's Warsaw project involved an investment of 500 million euro and was constructed over 225 000 sq m. The current market price of the project was estimated at more than one billion euro, according to Investor.bg.

"Projects of this size take an awful lot of time, but this is precisely what adds value to the project. On the other hand, if you announce a project like this and you do not manage to start construction within two years, your reputation suffers," Hoeksma said.